Identification card and a method of producing same

ABSTRACT

The disclosure concerns an identification card containing information such as name, account number, photo of the card owner, etc. The card is protected by a superjacent printed security pattern, such as a guilloche, or other pattern which is difficult to imitate, or a homogeneous printed surface. The information is inscribed into the identification card material through the printed security pattern by a laser beam recorder. The energy of the laser and the colors of the printed security pattern are coordinated with each other in such a way that the laser light is not absorbed by the printed security pattern and the latter is not destroyed by the laser light.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 330.816, filed Dec. 15,1981 abandoned.

The invention relates to an identification card having informationapplied in the form of letters, numbers and/or images, whereby theinformation is protected by a printed security pattern or somethingsimilar printed over it, and a method of producing same.

Identification cards in the form of credit cards, bank card, cashpayment cards, etc., are employed increasingly in all kinds of servicesectors, cashless transfers and within enterprises. Due to theirextensive use, they are typical mass production items, on the one hand,i.e. their production must be simple and economical; on the other hand,they must be designed in such a way that they are protected againstforgery and falsification to as great a degree as possible. The numerouskinds of identification cards now on the market and still in adeveloping stage testify to the efforts of the relevant industry tooptimize these two contradictory conditions.

It is especially necessary that the data relating to the card owner,which are applied during the so-called personalization of theidentification card, be protected in such a way that they cannot bemanipulated afterwards. One possibility which has proved very useful inpractice is to embed a paper inlay designed as a security print into amultilayer card. The paper inlay with its authenticity features such aswatermarks, security threads, steel intaglio printing, etc., which areknown in the production of security papers, meets the highest standardsof security and is protected against all kinds of attempted forgery andfalsification due to the protection of the data by transparent coverfilms.

The Swiss Patent No. 477 066 and the German Offenlegungschrift No. 29 07809 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,083 describe additionalprotection against manipulation as well as a further very effective wayof marking the authenticity of this type of identification card. Thesepatent applications mention identification cards in which in particularthe photographic areas of the card are protected by a security patternarranged on top of the photographic area.

Mainly because of their much simpler and cheaper production, all-plasticidentification cards are used in the identification card sector as well,in which the identification card data and the general printed patternare applied to the outer surface of a plastic card, which may also havea multilayer construction, if desired. In various forms of execution ofthis kind of identification card the data relating to the user (name,account number, etc.) are impressed through the back of theidentification card so as to be in relief on the front. This allows forthe transfer of the personalization data onto bills and so on by meansof an ink ribbon in the various stores. The raised areas of theimpression are colored so as to improve the legibility of the impresseddata.

In spite of the economical advantages of this type of allplasticidentification card, it has proved to be particularly disadvantageousthat the directly accessible printed pattern as well as thepersonalization data are relatively unprotected against attemptedfalsification. The impressed data can be manipulated, for example, bybeing "ironed flat" and then imprinted over with other data. The printedpattern can be removed, if necessary, with chemical solvents that areavailable everywhere, and then replaced or added to by another printedpattern.

The production of total forgeries is usually possible with extremelysimple methods since up to now practically no security techniques areknown in the case of all-plastic identification cards which areeconomically feasible, on the one hand, and can be checked by anyonewithout auxiliary means and cannot be imitated by means of readilyavailable devices and materials, on the other.

In order to solve this problem of lack of protection against forgery andfalsification, all kinds of security features have already beenproposed, such as codings embedded inside the identification card whichare "readable" by IR light, holographic storage methods, etc. All thesetechniques, however, have the great disadvantage that they cannot bechecked without elaborate auxiliary means and are thus not accessible tothe man on the street.

The German Patentschrift 29 07 004 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No.4,544,181, taking the problems of security and production intoconsideration, also discloses an identification card having a paperinlay and a transparent cover film, in which the personal data areinscribed onto the card layer by means of a laser beam after the coverfilm has been laminated on. The information can be burned into the cardinlay in this way, but it can also be present in the form of adiscoloration of a thermosensitive coating applied to the inlay.

This type of card offers a high degree of protection against forgery andfalsification since the data are protected on the one hand by the coverfilm against direct access and on the other hand by almost all theauthenticity and protection features customary in the production ofsecurity paper.

Since burning on the identification card data more or less destroys thestructure of the material, on the one hand, and this type of data mustthus be protected against direct mechanical stress, but thediscoloration present in a coating is relatively easy to remove ormanipulate, on the other hand, when it is directly accessible, theidentification card personalization does not appear feasible in the waydescribed above in the case of identification cards in which the dataare directly accessible on the outer surface.

The invention is thus based on the problem of providing anidentification card which can be produced easily and economically andstill has a high standard of security.

This problem is solved according to the invention by providing asecurity pattern which is completely or almost completely permeable forthe light of a laser recorder which is specified for each case.

In a particularly preferred embodiment the identification card isdesigned as an all-plastic identification card in which the securitypattern is provided on the outer, directly accessible surface of theidentification card and the data applied by means of a laser recorderare burned into the plastic surface of the identification card throughthe security pattern.

In a development of the invention, the security pattern is arranged insuch a way that it at least partially overlaps with the data of theidentification card which are particularly in need of protection.

In the method of producing and personalizing identification cardsaccording to the invention, the security pattern is applied to theidentification card before the latter is personalized. Thepersonalization data, etc., are then recorded by means of a laserrecorder through the security pattern.

An appropriate arrangement of the security pattern and a proper choiceof inks allow for the data applied by means of the laser recorder to bearranged at least partly beneath the security pattern and thus beaccessible to checking through the latter.

The method of producing and personalizing identification cards accordingto the invention is based on the finding that various colorants whichare very visible in the visible range of the spectrum, i.e. reflectrelatively well for various wavelength ranges of the visible spectrum,are, however, completely or almost completely "invisible" for thewavelength or radiation of a laser, i.e. very permeable for thesewavelengths. The act of writing on a data carrier provided with thistype of security pattern by means of a laser recorder thus takes place"from the point of view of the laser" as though the security patternwere not present. The laser writing therefore appears to the visualobserver to have been already provided before the application of thesecurity pattern.

The identification cards according to the invention have numerousadvantages, as is quite obvious. They are extremely safe in spite oftheir simple basic construction and economic production, which islimited to simple printing techniques as in the case of usualidentification cards. This protection is due to the fact that theappearance of the cards is very essentially marked by the laser writingtechnique and the security pattern arranged on top of the laser writing,the essential features thus obtained cannot be imitated by othertechniques and the presence and undamaged state of the essentialfeatures can be checked without auxiliary means. As the technically veryhigh quality laser recorders to be used according to the invention forthe personalization of the cards are only available in a few places, ahigh degree of protection against both falsification and total forgeryis the result. The production and personalization of identificationcards is possible using the usual techniques by merely employing inkshaving the proper effect. A changeover for the new cards does notrequire any basically novel production equipment for the card producers.Furthermore these cards can be personalized decentrally and subsuquentlyto the actual production of the cards, as can those stated in the GermanPatentschrift No. 29 07 004.

A further important advantage has proved to be the fact that theproposals according to the invention also allow for the very effectiveprotection of all-plastic identification cards against falsification,since the identification card data are very effectively protected by thesecurity pattern on top of them and manipulation is obvious to anybodyin the form of damage to or changes in this printed pattern.

As is described in detail in a parallel application, the surprisingfinding has been made that writing on a plastic film with a laserrecorder can be made much more resistant to chemical and mechanicalinfluences by means of local solidification or oxidation processes andso on than the surroundings that are not written on. This results in theadditional advantage that precisely the areas of the identification cardwhich are particularly in danger of being manipulated are especiallyresistant to such attempts due to this increased "resistance". As thesecurity pattern on top of them is not or hardly affected by the writingprocess, the "laser data" are protected by a much more sensitive andpossibly very elaborately constructed security feature, which istherefore very difficult to imitate. A change in the data can thus beprevented additionally in a very effective way even when theidentification card 1 data are directly accessible on the outer surfaceof the identification card.

Although the identification cards provided with a security paper inlaycannot be matched in their degree of protection and aesthetic appearanceby all-plastic identification cards or similar identification cards, theinvention does point out a way of uniting some of the safety features ofthe known identification card having a security paper inlay with some ofthe economic features of the all-plastic identification card.

In the following some embodiments of the invention are described by wayof example on the basis of the adjoined drawings. These show:

FIG. 1 an identification card according to the invention from the top,

FIG. 2 a schematic representation of an identification card according tothe invention in cross-section.

FIG. 1 shows an all-plastic identification card 1 according to theinvention having personalization data 2, a photo 3, a signature strip 4provided with a signature 5 from the hand of the card owner, and asecurity pattern 6 overlapping the personalization data. The securitypattern 6 is designed as a guilloche in the present case, which, as iscommonly known, consists of a very fine and complicated line patternwhich can only be achieved with great effort and is thus almostimpossible to imitate. The security pattern is applied to the outersurface of the front of the card. It covers the surface of the card overa large area and thus overlaps the identification card data beneath itat many places.

As is shown schematically in FIG. 2, the personalization data 2,3 areburned relatively deeply into the surface of the card. The depth of thisburning in depends on the available writing energy, the writing time andthe identification card material that is being used. It can be variedfrom case to case and adjusted within limits to various needs by varyingthe parameters mentioned. As can also be seen in FIG. 2, thepersonalization data 2,3 are arranged beneath the security pattern 6(shown here as a continuous layer) which can also be designed as ahomogeneous color layer, if need be, by using transparent inks. Due tothe relatively high transparency of the inks used for the printing ofthe security pattern which are selected in the preferred form ofexecution, the data 2,3 applied by means of the laser recorder can alsobe fully recognized through this color layer. As the security printinginks are almost completely permeable for the laser light, the securityprinting does not exhibit any visually noticeable damage afterpersonalization even in areas 7 that are "written on" over a largesurface.

As the personalization data 2,3 are inscribed without any transitioninto the surface of the identification card by discoloring theidentification card material, it is practically only possible to changethese data afterwards by scratching out the particular local areas andthus destroying the surface of the identification card. As the securitypattern 2,3 is arranged on top of these data and is much weaker if onlybecause of its layer thickness, the data 2,3 can obviously never bechanged without destroying the security pattern 6. Manipulationtherefore necessarily leads to the destruction of the surface of theidentification card, which can be noticed and checked by anyone withoutany auxiliary means, even in the embodiments shown in the figures.

What is claimed is:
 1. An identification document comprising:a basecard; identification information on said base card, said informationbeing applied directly to said base card by a laser recorder; a securitypattern covering said base card in areas to be protected wherein saididentification information is beneath the security pattern and visiblewithout any auxiliary equipment; colorants in said security patternvisibly unchangeable by the radiation of a laser recorder wherein saididentification information is recorded through the security patternwithout destroying said security pattern.
 2. The identification documentof claim 1, wherein said security pattern extends over a large area ofsaid base card.
 3. The identification document of claim 2, wherein saidsecurity pattern extends substantially over the entire surface area ofsaid base card.
 4. The identification document of claim 1, wherein saididentification information is selected from the group consisting ofletters, numbers, images and combinations thereof.
 5. The identificationdocument of any one of claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein said security patternis a printed security pattern.
 6. The identification document of claim5, wherein said printed security pattern is designed as a guillochepattern.
 7. The identification document of claim 5, wherein said printedsecurity pattern is in the form of continuous printed areas.
 8. Theidentification document of claim 7, wherein a guilloche pattern at leastpartially overlaps said continuous printed areas.
 9. An identificationdocument having identification information in the form of letters,numbers, images and combinations thereof comprising:a base card; meansfor covering said base card in an area to be protected wherein saidmeans for covering is a visible security pattern; identificationinformation applied to said base card through said security pattern bymeans of a laser recorder controlled so that the radiation of said laserrecorder during application of said identification information does notvisibly change said visible security pattern; wherein saididentification information is beneath said security pattern and visiblewithout any auxiliary equipment.
 10. The identification document ofclaim 9, wherein said security pattern is printed on said base card. 11.The identification document of claim 10, wherein said security patternis printed over an entire face of said base card.
 12. The identificationdocument of claim 9, wherein said printed security pattern covers onlypartial areas of said base card.
 13. The identification document of anyone of claims 10, 11, or 12 wherein said security pattern is printed ina continuous pattern.
 14. The identification document of any one ofclaims 10, 11 or 12 wherein said security pattern is printed in aguilloche pattern.